Drum Pricing After The Ban Dies

[John Jr]

I don't really see much change on the colt era stuff at this stage. Not a whole lot on the Bridgeport stuff either, we have some history here and certainly reliability on both.

 

So does anyone see the West Hurley Drums getting a whacking?

 

50 rounders now...

 

C drums that are colt should see no change. Westies???

 

Don't know...

 

Any thoughts???

 

 

[brian]

the ban is not gone yet, and i heard congress is going to be working over the holiday on something....... Edited August 14, 2004 by brian

[JimFromFL]

I would expect the prices of the WH Drums to drop a few hundred dollars, but the original Drums would still fetch a premium among collectors.

 

There were a few WH people at the Thompson show and Mike gave them an ear full of information/advice about manufacturing the drum. Maybe he can post with some feedback from the conversation as I only listened to parts.

[full auto 45]

They listened well. Now if they do something is another matter. I showed them a old Bridgeport drum. I told them that if they want to sell new drums, have a hole down the middle like the old ones to grease the drum. That was something they had never thought of....duh. Then I said the problem with many WH drums is that the spring inside is too weak. Strengthen it and make it to work the first time out of box, and it will sell. I told them about Merle the drum doctor and they all knew him! That was a surprise. I really empathized about the spring and grease hole and they were interested and took notes and compared it to a WH drum someone had there. I also told them that if they make a drum that has weak springs and doesn't work without sending it to Merle, then they will be screwing the pooch on the drum bid'ness again. And I put it in those words. I think they were abit shocked to have someone tell them straight about it. I did find that they have many parts all ready made up for the drums. Well fronts and backs any way. We'll see when they come out.

[PK.]

Vintage stuff stays the same.

 

AO Kahr has a warehouse full of L’s ready for sale on the 14th- street price=

 

No new C’s- won’t even be considered until after the election and then only if Bush wins. If the Republicans can continue in the white house, someone may get ballsey enough to resurrect the old tooling and make a few. Quality on par with WH production. An honest C drum would be require an enormous investment of capital for tooling that is capable of producing a quality product- a hard sell in the difficult political environment (even under Bush) and with such a small market.

 

Buy all the new hi caps you think you need on the 14th- it may be a short window of opportunity.

 

My $.02

 

***************

 

Mike, on technical note- the hole in the rotor shaft of the pre WH drums is not for grease; there is no path into the interior of the drum through this hole. The drum greasing tool Merle designed forces grease into the spring cage through the annulus of the outside of the rotor and the spring cage itself.

 

One of the biggest problems with the WH and Kahr drums is not holding critical tolerances in the placement of the components and using soft materials. The dies used to draw the case and cover have to be very good to keep the corners tight and the parts flat, true and to size as seen in the pre war stuff. None of the later parts have shown the necessary quality because they weren’t willing to put the $$ into the tooling and processing. Many of the tolerances for the WWII drum parts are .005 or less- that’s awfully tight for a pressed steel part.

 

[full auto 45]

I should add that they knew of Merles drum greaser also. And liked the idea of being able to grease the spring. Who knows what they will come up with.

[OldFalGuy]

Look forward to the L drums being available next month even though they will probably need some tweaking- might be redone 10 rounders theat can't be helped by even Merle-hope not.

[427sohc]

if they sell 50 rd drums for 200 new,i dont care how bad they are ill buy one and fix it.

[OldFalGuy]

Right with you 427, I was thinking in terms of about 7 of them, with what I have I could load up a 500 round case and leave them un wound for a trip to the range. Granted getting them fixed would slow one down at first but I think it would be worth it in the long long run.

 

Mark http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Ron A]

WH drums have been selling anywhere from $1,000 - 1,200 - then expect to pay Merle around $200 -250 to get them to work. I have had several and none will work out of the box.